Franklin County students to compete at state Capital Area Science and Engineering Fair

This is the first time area students are competing at the Harrisburg fair.

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By Nancy Mace/The Record Herald

Waynesboro Record Herald - Waynesboro, PA

By Nancy Mace/The Record Herald

Posted Mar. 7, 2013 at 3:00 PM

By Nancy Mace/The Record Herald

Posted Mar. 7, 2013 at 3:00 PM

For the first time, Franklin County students are competing in the state Capital Area Science and Engineering Fair in Harrisburg.

The 56th annual fair is being held in Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts through Saturday.

“This is the first time ever that students from our county have gone on to compete in the state science fair,” according to Catharine Hade, a science teacher at Waynesboro Area Senior High School, who is accompanying the trio.

Winning ways

Shae Foreman, a senior at James Buchanan High School, Kirsten Harstock, a junior at WASHS and Hade’s student, and Mariah Martin, a senior at Greencastle-Antrim High School, won first place in their divisions in the 2012 Franklin Science and Technology Fair. This year’s fair will be held April 5 and 6 in Chambersburg Area Middle School South.

“They will defend their projects today to state judges. On Saturday, they will find out what awards or prizes they have won,” Hade said. “If they win first place in their category at the Capital Area Science Fair they are eligible for an all-expenses paid trip to Phoenix for the 2013 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair May 12 to 17.

The projects

Shae said she was thrilled when she found out that her project “My Family Tree of Traits,” was a winner in the cellular and molecular biology category.

“The experiment was done in an effort to determine if I would be able to figure out heredity traits of my great-grandparents by using pedigrees,” she explained. “A pedigree is a visual record of the descent of a human or of an animal.”

Shae said she came up with the idea of her project from an advanced biology class she took two years ago. “I really enjoyed learning about the varying genes and genetics that each and every person carries.”

Kirsten’s project is about fuel cells, which combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity.

“My project is comparing my project I did last year. In my previous project, I made my own hydrogen fuel cell water with some electrodes, wires, tape, a battery and some water. I did experiments with my model,” said Kirsten, who won the environmental science category.

“This year I have an actual fuel cell model and it is called a PEM fuel cell. I am comparing the data from my last experiment to my new data to see if my model was efficient or which model works better,” she noted.

For her project, “Set Your Sights,” in the physics and astronomy category, Mariah compared pictures from a commercial telescope and a homemade one.

Page 2 of 2 - “I made a telescope and used it to observe the moon, Saturn, Venus and also the solar eclipse this summer. The photos I took with it were pretty much equal to those of a commercial telescope with the same magnitude,” she added.